Cambridge Examining

So I'm now an officially qualified Oral Examiner for the Cambridge KET and PET exams. They are the lowest 2 levels of the cambridge exam series - just before FCE and CAE, which are the only ones I had ever heard of before. It took a weekend of training, most of which was spent assessing candidates we saw on videos, and comparing our results to make sure we all had the same idea of a "3" or whatever. Even though I had to get up at crack of dawn to get into Tokyo by 9am in the rain, I'm glad I did it for several reason. For a start I've met some interesting people who have seriously expanded my social life here, and that I'm likely to stay in touch with (it helps that the main 2 people I met that weekend are both going to be based near Brisbane after leaving here!). Also, the qualification is valid for life, although I have to do a 4 hour "co-ordination" session every year if I'm planning to examine. I can use it pretty much anywhere in the world as well, which is nice, although it's not something you can do full time, there might be a weekend's work every now and then for me. And of course, it looks great on the resume!
It was also good in terms of professional development. I always find oral testing so subjective, and I'm never sure if my opinion is "correct". So it was good to compare our marks for the example exams, and see if we were too hard or easy on them, and get lots of practice in listening for particular things, such as range of grammar forms and vocabulary or whatever. Hopefully it will help me in oral exams such as placement tests and report writing in the future. And, of course, as I now know the format of the exam and what the examiners are looking for, it will be easier for me to prepare students for these exams, assuming I ever have any who want to do it!
On Thursday I did my first (and only) testing session. I think I was very lucky, as the others I have spoken to have had to do 9am-5pm marathons. I had it very easy with 1.30-4pm, with a total of 6 pairs to test. And they all passed! Everything went just as it was supposed to, which is nice!

Back to school tomorrow, after a 4 day break. Argh!

Job Satisfaction

We have about 12 teaching days left in this contract. I think I'm glad. I have quite enjoyed living in Japan - I've sort of felt for a while now that it was something I had to do at some point - but I think I will be ready to leave at the end of this contract. It's been quite good, work is definitely not too hard, the money is good, the company looks after you well, but I'm thinking lately that I'm lacking the really heartwarming job satisfaction that I have had in other jobs.
It could be that I've been spoilt in the last few years by always teaching beginners. There are several reason I love teaching beginners - for a start, you are usually their first english teacher (at least, first since school) and so they don't have anyone else to compare you to, and thus are often less critical. My beginner students often seem to like me a lot, I've found. The other thing is that their progress is so clear to see. If you start by teaching someone words like 'hello' and 'my name is...' and a few weeks (or months) later they are producing whole sentences on their own, it's easy to see they have improved, and that it is due to your teaching (and their hard work, of course!).
Here I'm teaching conversation to intermediate uni students. Their progress is not so easy to see, and they are more critical, having had several teachers in the same program before. I also have these free-talk session where we just chat, which means there is more emphasis on my social skills than my teaching skills. (I'm more confident about my teaching skills!). As I'm also less experienced at teaching this level, I have fewer great resources up my sleeve, and the lessons the company give us to teach are beginning to scrape the bottom of the barrel I think - now that we have had 40 or so lessons, it seems both the company and I are running out of good ideas!
So for all these reasons, I'm finding myself less-than-usually satisfied with my job. But that's ok. There's only 12 teaching days left!

Oh, and to see me almost-in-action, have a look at this website!

ARRRGH! (a rant, and a not very professional one, either!)

*WARNING: this is purely a rant and more for my own stress levels than for anyone to actually read! Feel free to skip it!*
I've worked in 7 diferent schools in the last 4 years, I worked out today. And I was thinking of this because I was trying to remember a single colleague I have had who has been as idiotic, irritating, immature and infuriating as one of my current colleagues. I've actually found myself comparing him to Pat, the 70 year old misogynistic alcoholic I had to share a flat and a staffroom with during my first stint in China. At least he had the excuse of an outback queensland upbringing, which we can only assume was very conservative, and his career in the army can't have helped. I don't know what this guy's excuse is. He's a young Brit, who has shown nothing but contempt for me since the day we met at training. He's an arrogant know-it-all who spent the first two weeks asking for class ideas as a morning greeting, then dismissing anything I came up with (on the spot before having woken up properly). He even said of one thing I suggested "oh I think those things (memory chains) are stupid, I never use them". Later that day I heard him get the same suggestion from another teacher (male, and the oldest and most experienced of the 4 of us - I'm second oldest and second most experienced) and his exact response was "oh yes, I should try that, it sounds good". Git. We also had a half hour long argument once (the last time we said anything but the barest necessities to each other) on whether or not you should introduce complete beginners to the past tense within the first 10 classroom hours. He couldn't believe there were any reasons for waiting until they had, oh, say, managed to produce a sentence of their own? Maybe if he had ever taught anywhere but NOVA (japanese method school that seems to prefer inexperienced teachers that they can indoctrinate in their own follow-the-dots teaching style) or outside japan, he would have some idea of what a "beginner" actually is. GRRR.
Anyway, this all boiled over today because of an altercation over the printer this morning. He left the room and the printer was printing a dozen copies of something, so I assumed it was a mistake and cancelled it and he returned and descended to the name-calling level, and it turned out he has run out of photocopying credit for the semester so now just prints class sets on the office printer which they are kind enough to let us use. I'm sure he's going to abuse the privelege and they'll decree that none of us can use it, and then where will we be!
So my stress levels were high pretty much all day, which hasn't helped the cold I think I'm getting. And I'm worried that now we have progressed from barely veiled contempt to open warfare, that he will do something stupid and horrible like tell the company tales about me, or steal my expensive tea, or something. Unbelievable.
*END RANT*